Billy Elliot – Let Them Eat Cake
Similar artists: Car Seat Headrest, Elvis Costello
Genre: Folk rock, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Yesterday were the Oscars. I wouldn’t expect you to know that, and if you’ve opted for another year to miss out on these five hours of pseudo entertainment, I congratulate you. I could not. Call it duty or a kind of morbid fascination.
Like the Grammys, the Emmys, or any other award ceremony in which celebrity performers are used as walking billboards for fashion houses or doll manufacturers, the Oscars are primarily about one thing – celebrities telling their celebrity friends just how good they are.
If you’re doing anything creative, you might think that the game is rigged. Indeed, Billy Elliot’s seen all the good-looking, rich kids playing guitars get record deals, and everyone else slaving for the chance to play an empty bar on a Wednesday afternoon.
Billy Elliot’s “Let Them Eat Cake” is lo-fi rock made against hi-fi, louder-than-anything-rock. Making art has become a privilege, and those born with a silver spoon ain’t got many stories worth turning into songs. Christened after a story of a hero fighting against the odds, Billy Elliot records low-key songs about trying to trump against the odds, or being smashed into pieces by them.
Scoobert Doobert – Gemini
Genre: Indie Rock, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
It’s all bound to disappoint you, I’m telling you. Lower your expectations for whatever you’re doing and take Dr. Huberman’s advice on saving up on dopamine. It’s not going to end well otherwise.
We’re the most overstimulated generation in history. We’ve got endless entertainment of all varieties at our fingertips. Yet, few of us are happy, and some of us are willing to give it all up in exchange for moving to the jungle to a place where an internet connection cannot harm us anymore.
Few of us are great readers. Yet, we consume more information than anyone ever before. Few of us would consider ourselves to have chemical addictions. Yet, leave us with an espresso and a cocktail in the evening, and we’ll climb up the walls.
In many ways, Scoobert Doobert’s “Gemini” is a sonic depiction of the world in which we’re living right now. The sound is small, it grooves and it sounds like it is being played out of a laptop speaker. The lyrics deal with searching for a new high that is always doomed to disappear. It’s a charming tune about our endless needs. And, it really sounds like ti was made in 2024.
